You’re on Twitter now, @JoeSquawk. How do you think about using social media?

Everything happens instantaneously now, and I’ve been slow to adapt. A lot of people in their 40s and 50s aren’t quite as comfortable with social media. I’m very careful with anything I tweet or … even retweet. I do tweet verbally for three hours every day on air.

Business news is serious, but you look like you’re having a lot of fun on the air and aren’t afraid to do gags with guests and co-hosts.

It’s very difficult sometimes for people who are coming on to relax as we’re counting down to being live. And I realized this can be hard for them. So I think it helps to be somewhat disarming and to be conversational. It elicits more information if people are relaxed. As far as the gags and the humor, we’re talking about business news, and it is a little bit dry and there are some people who tune in just for the information, but there are other people who feel like we’re almost family. When people decide to spend the morning with us it’s important that they feel a connection.

The LA Times’ Joe Flint writes that Mark Shapiro, former chief executive with Dick Clark Productions, is in the mix to run CNN Worldwide…

Former Dick Clark Productions Chief Executive Mark Shapiro has emerged as a candidate for the top job at the cable news channel CNN, according to people familiar with the matter.

Shapiro, who prior to running Dick Clark Productions was a top programming executive at ESPN, would be an unusual choice for the CNN job, given that he does not have a traditional hard news background.

However, Shapiro has strong production chops from his days at ESPN, which has its own large news division. He is seen as an innovative executive unafraid to take chances. He also is known for having sharp elbows and for being confrontational at times with talent and other executives.